Why are so many Black adolescents, particularly males, making the transition from high school to prison?
What does this say about the future of Black men? How is this affecting, not only their livelihoods, but also the lives of those surrounding them?
Is there a solution? Is there hope?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The issue with Black teens, more specifically, males leaving high school only to fall victim to the prison system, is an issue that is weakening the existence of black men, period.
ReplyDeleteThis Black crisis didn’t start overnight. It began when morals were tampered with and redefined. It started when providing for the household became foreign. This disruption of family and contentment changed the course of the Black man and was passed down to his sons. A chain effect occurred; and it glorified absent fathers, overworked single-mother households, the need for foster care, and ultimately, no supervision. One would ask what all of this has to do with teen incarceration. The answer would lie in the almost 40 percent of young black males incarcerated come from single parent households. Ultimately, leading stressed single parents to health problems or the inability to be strong and so, they just give up all together and pass down their children to grandparents, foster parents, or other unfortunate places. They found themselves searching for false necessities and family in the wrong places, like the streets and later find themselves in jail. To fix this problem it starts with changing the mentality of these young Black males; a mentality that lets them forget about their responsibilities and abilities to teach right and not wrong.
Should we lose hope? This question is irrelevant if Black young men have already lost hope in themselves.
Growing up in an urban environment my entire life, the opinions I possess are not in vain. I have seen our young brothers get handcuffed in front of my eyes for a number of reasons, whether it is from their own decisions or the actions of another. Personally, I truly believe the issue of young black men going to jail and not even completing their high school education exists for a plethora of reasons. Some of the reasons are obvious, one of which being the negative temptations that surround these young men on an everyday basis. Others consist of the households that a large percentage of these young brothers come from. Statistics show that 39% of these young boys who are incarcerated in these correctional facilities hail, from single parent households. Because of this, they feel there is no other way to obtain or acquire the objects and materialistic products they desire. But snip all of that out of the picture. Yes, I do believe these pre-existing conditions can have some type of affect on the development of a child. However, it is no where near acceptable to use as a crutch for the rest of their days. That is the problem. To those who do come from the circumstances I mentioned earlier are always given the benefit of the doubt when they indulge in behavior resulting in incarceration. But that needs to seize to exist. Just as our people as a whole, these brothers need to realize they do not have to be a product of their environment. They also need to get rid of the mentality that a life of crime is the only way to survive. There is something for everyone whether it’s flipping a burger or filing documents. As with the majority of the black community, there is an obsession with the here and now. We are more concerned with the living room set we have now instead of planning how to decorate your own living room as you strived to own your own home. As these young men go down the wrong paths, they have little regard for the results of their futures. It is only after they have been released and fill out a job application where they have to answer yews to that dreadful question, have you ever been convicted of a felony, do they realize the hardships they will have to face for the rest of their lives. Just as history repeats itself, so does the vicious cycle that is occurring with young black men. As they continue to make these detrimental choices, the upcoming generations are bound to follow in their footsteps. The struggles of our ancestors are in vain and the fight of our people go unnoticed as more and more young black men across the country continuously give society a justification for their actions against our people. Just as the little boy down the block looks up to all the big kids on the block, these young men need to realize that our black communities are looking up to them to help change the conditions of the community in an attempt to make life better for the younger generation that are actually their very own little brothers and sisters. But what good can you do behind bars of iron?
ReplyDeleteEveryone who is actually interested in this subject should google Khailah Brown-Dean, she was a speaker at the Yale BSC several years ago, and she has devoted her research to the cradle-to-prison pipeline. What we have to remember is that the prison system is in most cases a private industry, and what private companies always try to do is increase profit. So in the case of prisons that means fewer services, and treating inmates poorly, and trying to increase the # of inmates. Also do some research on the Corrections Corporation of America.
ReplyDelete